Galloping Through the Story of Rossini's William Tell Overture
The Best Moments
William Tell Overture
I'm Gioachino Rossini, and these are the best moments of my William Tell Overture. You'll hear the highlights of a twelve-minute overture whose four parts run into each other without a pause, which is why it feels like one little story. Whenever you're ready, give the Trainer a try , because my fellow composers and I also teach you here to recognize our pieces as soon as they begin.
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Sunrise With Very Good Manners
I open the overture with five solo cellos, backed by double basses and a few barely audible timpani rolls, so the morning arrives on tiptoe. It's slow and hushed, and the sun takes its time, like someone who has decided that nobody should be woken up before breakfast.
Weather Report, Then Cows
I let the storm break in next with the full orchestra, and after all that quiet the sky seems to lose its patience. Once the thunder has run out, a solo flute floats in, and then the cor anglais and the flute play the "Ranz des vaches", which means "Call to the Cows" and gives you a calm Swiss meadow with a triangle tinkling in the background.
The Horses Showed Up Late
I save the best for last, when the trumpets sound and the "March of the Swiss Soldiers" bursts out as a fast galop that you probably know already. You may picture a masked rider on a white horse, but that comes from The Lone Ranger, and my opera has no horses at all, so the galloping was added long after my time.
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So that's the whole ride, from the first quiet cello to the last gallop, and it all fits into about twelve minutes. I wrote this music as the doorway to my last opera, and I find it a little wonderful that so many people know the doorway without ever having walked through to the rest of the house. Perhaps that's the best thing about it: the music has never needed an introduction. Did you enjoy learning about the best moments of William Tell Overture? I hope the next time you hear it, you'll notice the hushed dawn, the storm and the meadow along the way, and not only the famous ending. There's still a lot more to discover about this piece. Berlioz, who usually didn't care for my music, called the overture "a symphony in four parts". Liszt turned it into a showpiece for solo piano in 1838. And the story of how the finale became so closely tied to a masked hero on horseback is worth a listen of its own. If you'd like to go further, please click on the links below to keep exploring William Tell Overture. I'd be glad to have you back for another listen.